Every single thing you see is made up of elements in the periodic table . Ever since scientists first cobbled together these catalogs of nature ’ s building blocks in the 19th century , they have doubted if there was any termination to the elements and their variants ( called isotopes ). It ’ s a deep question at the heart of the physical universe . At the present
Dawn Shaughnessy time , we have 118 elements on the books , differentiated by the number of protons in their nuclei .
About 26 of these elements , however , do not exist in nature . Over the years , physicists have fabricated new , short-lived and characteristically supersized elements ( as well-defined by their atomic number ) by colliding atomic nuclei together in particle accelerators . Many of the fascinating isotopes also have arisen from these colliders . Annoyingly , though , we might first hit a wall when it comes to forming new elements beyond the 92 natural and 26 man-made elements that presently exist . That ’ s because today ’ s atom-smashing methods are near their theoretical and technological boundaries . “ We think we have a path forward to element 120 ,” says Dawn Shaughnessy , a chemist and project leader of the heavy element program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory . Whether we can get past 120 is anyone ’ s guess , she says .